Friday, December 31, 2010

It's that time of year again. Time to take stock of how 2010 was photographically and see how things are shaping up for next year.

According to Flickr, this was my most popular image of 2010. 2010 was very much a year I did a lot of black and white work, and I'd have to say I struggled with doing square black and white images over my traditional color images. No worries here though, as I've always loved black and white. It's good to sometimes pull back, dial down the color, and see things for how they really are, isn't it?

2010 wasn't a great year for me photographically but it wasn't totally empty either.

Early this year a man flew a plane into a building in Austin. I was on the same road driving to work when it happened. Those were some of my first uploads to Flickr last year. I challenged myself to treat the subject as a photojournalist would-no heavy post processing, no major edits, just shoot it as I see it kind of a thing. Now, I'm not in a hurry to do that again, I can say it was a nice exercise for me. I did get some pictures out of it and I'm happy I did it. I think we all need to challenge ourselves photographically, even if we don't always love the results or if we don't get what we might expect from the camera. That's part of the journey of being an artist.

I did some drawing sessions and started taking pictures of my drawings. I went to Fotofest in Houston. I shot some pictures there but also saw a lot of work. It takes a long time to process (mentally) Fotofest, takes a long time to absorb seeing all that much work in one small spot. Still doing that really. This image actually comes from that trip down to Houston to check out all of the work at Fotofest.

I went to New Mexico and took another photo workshop in Santa Fe at the Santa Fe Photography Workshops. I studied with a great photographer and met a lot of nice people. The workshop with Elizabeth Opalenik was wonderful and time in Santa Fe is always time well spent. The workshop experience is one that I recommend highly for any photographer and the Santa Fe Workshops, while grueling and tiring really kick start everything into the next level. They really are life changing and artistic affirming events-I recommend the experience highly for anybody who's thinking about moving their work to the next level and is unsure of how to go about doing that.

I did a series of self portraits. Projected images. I finally got 20 of them done and, while I don't love all of them, some of them came out ok. It was an interesting project even if it's been a bit of a let down in terms of commercial success (I don't think most people do self portraits to sell a lot of work anyway and I'm certainly no exception to that rule.) Projected pixels, pieces of me finally started coming together in 2010 and I'm happy about that. I think it was high time I put myself in front of the lens for a change and I'm happy I did it looking back on the project. It's also not finished-I expect to do more with the projector in the years and projects to come.

I got an iPhone in July and started shooting with it a lot. I got invited to do an iPhone only show in Austin-that's going to happen early next year. Fun stuff. It's really put the fun back into photography for me and I love it for that.

I did a lot with encaustics and started doing a lot of pastels. My pastels are improving and I had a few shows of my encaustic (and photo + encaustic) panels. I expect to do more of that next year as well. I also went to the car show and changed up a bit how I shot the cars this year. They still look like me, I just expanded my repertoire a bit when it comes to shooting the cars.

I did a series called "Mexico in Blue" that's very digitally altered. I like it. Some people love it too, while others not so much. I haven't finished it and I expect to take it to the next level in 2011. Look for more of that style of work to come next year.

November brought on the East Austin Studio Tour but I did fewer shows this year. It felt good to do that. Sometimes, I do too many shows and it's good to slow down, do fewer but make them more fun and meaningful. Next year will probably find me doing more shows and getting work out more. Just a guess and maybe I'm wrong about that, but I'm itching to do some shows and get my work out a bit more than this year. In 2010 I was a bit distracted and happy to let shows slide by in favor of other things, I expect to return to the show scene with a bang, starting early in 2011.

I got a new camera and started upgrading my equipment a bit. I expect this to continue heavily in 2011, with probably another new camera, maybe even two, possibly a new printer, and lots of little upgrades here and there. This is the kind of behind the scenes stuff that helps keep things going, even if it isn't as fun for me to talk about and share with you here. I've never been a "gear head" photographer but I do need to have my gadgets in order to do what I do, so I plan on making the upgrades as best I can to keep things moving forward in 2011.

I ended the year by doing a bit of commercial work and getting ready to start 2011 with a bang. Next year, I'll be adding a new word to my photographic resume and that's: educator. I've been approached by several different places to teach art and photography and I'm looking forward to that opportunity.

Looking ahead, I've got classes coming up, (I'm teaching soon) I'm in the process of updating my equipment, and I'm going to do a larger project which (I hope) will turn into a big one person show (somewhere.)

I'd have to say 2010 was the year of mixed media for me. Mixed media, self portraits and the iPhone mostly. Not a bad year for me, not one of my best but I look back and see signs of growth. The pastels and encaustics are moving me in some new directions and I explored some old favorites with the square black and white work. All in all it was another year for the books, and I'm looking forward to 2011 and all of the joy this will bring.

I hope you have a happy photographic and artistically successful new year and 2011 brings your creativity to life.

More Carol

Welcome to the blog of exhibiting fine art photographer Carol Schiraldi. With decades behind a lens and a substantial list of exhibitions, shows, and gallery work, Carol shares her musings on life, art, and photography.

To see more of Carol's work, or purchase any images from this site, please visit the gallery website, House of Carol.